2012-10-26

Tutorial: Sailor Inspired Button Pants

Here's something I never did before. Not until I decided I would make it this time.

I will tell you the whole story, yes, don't worry. I had this green pants I bought for myself last year, but only wore it once, so, I wanted to make them into something else for baby G. I knew what kind of piece I wanted to make (pants), but I didn't want them to be ordinary. I wanted something different, but couldn't really think of anything that would please me 100%.

I will surely show you the before and after of the pants refashion, but today I have been working on a new tutorial.. so let me get to this first.

I made up my mind about what type of pants to make when visiting my sister's I saw these pair from my 5 year old niece.

Top: original pants from my niece; Down: my experimenting

I liked it so much I brough them with me so I could copy the pattern. I had to figure out how to make the sailor like closure, that's something I had never done before and wasn't sure how it'd be done. So, there I was staring at it, over and over, until I finally grabbed a piece of scrap fabric I use for experiments and tested if my thoughts on how to make it, were any right. They were, so it was time to make it on the final fabric, with no fear of messing it all up.

First thing you have to do is mark the place where the opening will be on the front piece of the pants. From that mark, measure 4cm into the centre of the pants front. Pin it. Then cut a 12x10cm rectangle, and put in on top of the front piece, right sides together. Make sure, one of the edges is right where you've pinned before (4 cm away from the opening mark).

Turn it around, we're going to work on the wrong side of the front piece now. Sew a line on both sides of the one you've drawn on the fabric to mark the opening. See images above to understand it better, I'm not sure I am making myself clear. The porpuse is to cut in the middle of those two lines you're going to sew.

Now, don't be afraid! You can cut your openings. Then turn it around, and pin it. See above images: front and back view, how they both will look like.

Then, you will sew only one side of the opening. In the front side of the fabric. That will be the side I have marked on the picture below, for the left side, and the oposite on the other. After you do that, get to the back of the fabric again, and fold the rectangle to match the edges (see second picture below). Pin it in place (closing your opening this way). Then you will sew the other seam just like on the 3rd image below.

On the last two pictures above you can see how it will look after you sew it. Closed and opened. Now the only thing left to do it make button holes and add buttons to it.

Use your button to mark the correct lenght for your button hole. Draw the button holes on the front of the fabric. Make sure they are symmetric. Sew it on your machine. Add the buttons (I did it by hand), and you're done.

I really screwed up my pants on one thing. Go back to the start of my post. Look at the original pants. Did you guess what I mean?! There are only two buttons on each side, and one of them is ON the waist band, which I haven't added to my pair yet. What can I do to fix it now? Use three buttons on each side. Easy! The problem? I only had 4 of these buttons. I will have to find another ones, that I have 6 of... =/ Next time I should pay more attention.

There you go, here's what I've been working on all evening. I hope it's clear and useful.